Risk factors for race-day fatality in flat racing Thoroughbreds in Great Britain (2000 to 2013)

A key focus of the racing industry is to reduce the number of race-day events where horses die suddenly or are euthanased due to catastrophic injury. The objective of this study was therefore to determine risk factors for race-day fatalities in Thoroughbred racehorses, using a cohort of all horses participating in flat racing in Great Britain between 2000 and 2013. Horse-, race- and course-level data were collected and combined with all race-day fatalities, recorded by racecourse veterinarians in a central database. Associations between exposure variables and fatality were assessed using logistic regression analyses for (1) all starts in the dataset and (2) starts made on turf surfaces only. There were 806,764 starts in total, of which 548,571 were on turf surfaces. A total of 610 fatalities were recorded; 377 (61.8%) on turf. In both regression models, increased firmness of the going, increasing racing distance, increasing average horse performance, first year of racing and wearing eye cover for the first time all increased the odds of fatality. Generally, the odds of fatality also increased with increasing horse age whereas increasing number of previous starts reduced fatality odds. In the ‘all starts’ model, horses racing in an auction race were at 1.46 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06–2.01) times the odds of fatality compared with horses not racing in this race type. In the turf starts model, horses racing in Group 1 races were at 3.19 (95% CI 1.71–5.93) times the odds of fatality compared with horses not racing in this race type. Identification of novel risk factors including wearing eye cover and race type will help to inform strategies to further reduce the rate of fatality in flat racing horses, enhancing horse and jockey welfare and safety

From Molecular Genetics to Phylodynamics: Evolutionary Relevance of Mutation Rates Across Viruses

Although evolution is a multifactorial process, theory posits that the speed of molecular evolution should be directly determined by the rate at which spontaneous mutations appear. To what extent these two biochemical and population-scale processes are related in nature, however, is largely unknown. Viruses are an ideal system for addressing this question because their evolution is fast enough to be observed in real time, and experimentally-determined mutation rates are abundant. This article provides statistically supported evidence that the mutation rate determines molecular evolution across all types of viruses. Properties of the viral genome such as its size and chemical composition are identified as major determinants of these rates. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis reveals that, as expected, evolution rates increase linearly with mutation rates for slowly mutating viruses. However, this relationship plateaus for fast mutating viruses. A model is proposed in which deleterious mutations impose an evolutionary speed limit and set an extinction threshold in nature. The model is consistent with data from replication kinetics, selection strength and chemical mutagenesis studies

Full Genome Characterization of the Culicoides-Borne Marsupial Orbiviruses: Wallal Virus, Mudjinbarry Virus and Warrego Viruses

Viruses belonging to the species Wallal virus and Warrego virus of the genus Orbivirus were identified as causative agents of blindness in marsupials in Australia during 1994/5. Recent comparisons of nucleotide (nt) and amino acid (aa) sequences have provided a basis for the grouping and classification of orbivirus isolates. However, full-genome sequence data are not available for representatives of all Orbivirus species. We report full-genome sequence data for three additional orbiviruses: Wallal virus (WALV); Mudjinabarry virus (MUDV) and Warrego virus (WARV). Comparisons of conserved polymerase (Pol), sub-core-shell 'T2' and core-surface 'T13' proteins show that these viruses group with other Culicoides borne orbiviruses, clustering with Eubenangee virus (EUBV), another orbivirus infecting marsupials. WARV shares <70% aa identity in all three conserved proteins (Pol, T2 and T13) with other orbiviruses, consistent with its classification within a distinct Orbivirus species. Although WALV and MUDV share <72.86%/67.93% aa/nt identity with other orbiviruses in Pol, T2 and T13, they share >99%/90% aa/nt identities with each other (consistent with membership of the same virus species - Wallal virus). However, WALV and MUDV share <68% aa identity in their larger outer capsid protein VP2(OC1), consistent with membership of different serotypes within the species - WALV-1 and WALV-2 respectively

Little evidence that lowering the pH of concrete supports greater biodiversity on tropical and temperate seawalls

Concrete is one of the most commonly used materials in the construction of coastal and marine infrastructure despite the well known environmental impacts which include a high carbon footprint and high alkalinity (~pH 13). There is an ongoing discussion regarding the potential positive effects of lowered concrete pH on benthic biodiversity, but this has not been investigated rigorously. Here, we designed a manipulative field experiment to test whether carbonated (lowered pH) concrete substrates support greater species richness and abundance, and/or alter community composition, in both temperate and tropical intertidal habitats. We constructed 192 experimental concrete tiles, half of which were carbonated to a lower surface pH of 7-8 (vs. control pH of &gt;9), and affixed them to seawalls in the United Kingdom and Singapore. There were 2 sites per country, and 6 replicate tiles of each treatment were collected at 4 time points over a year. Overall, we found no significant effect of lowered pH on the abundance, richness, or community assemblage in both countries. Separate site- and month-specific generalised linear models (GLMs) showed only sporadic effects: i.e. lowered pH tiles had a small positive effect on early benthic colonisation in the tropics but this was later succeeded by similar species assemblages regardless of treatment. Thus, while it is worth considering the modification of concrete from an environmental/emissions standpoint, lowered pH may not be a suitable technique for enhancing biodiversity in the marine built environment.</jats:p

Impact and implications of international financial reporting standards in the UK : evidence from the alternative investment market

This paper investigates implications of the IFRS adoption from the perspective of small and growing companies listed on the UK Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The study considers the cost-benefit issues of the IFRS adoption and investigates its economic consequences. The results reveal that only a small number of comparatively larger AIM companies have voluntarily adopted IFRS for some anticipated economic objectives. The results also suggest that most of the mandatory adopters have done so for regulation compliance purposes and that they would have not adopted IFRS if a choice was available to them. As the existing literature mainly covers the impact of IFRS adoption on large listed companies, the findings of this study will give better insights about extending IFRS to private companies. The findings show an association between the early adoption of IFRS and firm size and conclude that size matters in both the adoption and implications of the IFRS. This study also contributes to the debate on the implication of the new IFRS based UK GAAP for SMEs-FRS 102, which will replace the majority of existing UK accounting standards for SMEs with effect from 2015. Our findings have implications for managers, regulators, market participants, practitioners, and other stakeholders

Radiographic closure time of appendicular growth plates in the Icelandic horse

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Icelandic horse is a pristine breed of horse which has a pure gene pool established more than a thousand years ago, and is approximately the same size as living and extinct wild breeds of horses. This study was performed to compare the length of the skeletal growth period of the "primitive" Icelandic horse relative to that reported for large horse breeds developed over the recent centuries. This information would provide practical guidance to owners and veterinarians as to when the skeleton is mature enough to commence training, and would be potentially interesting to those scientists investigating the pathogenesis of osteochondrosis. Interestingly, osteochondrosis has not been documented in the Icelandic horse.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The radiographic closure time of the appendicular growth plates was studied in 64 young Icelandic horses. The results were compared with previously published closure times reported for other, larger horse breeds. The radiographs were also examined for any signs of developmental orthopaedic diseases. In order to describe further the growth pattern of the Icelandic horse, the total serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was determined and the height at the withers was measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most of the examined growth plates were fully closed at the age of approximately three years. The horses reached adult height at this age; however ALP activity was still mildly increased over baseline values. The growth plates in the digits were the first to close at 8.1 to 8.5 months of age, and those in the regions of the distal radius (27.4 to 32.0 months), tuber olecrani (31.5 to 32.2 months), and the stifle (27.0 to 40.1 months) were the last to close. No horse was found to have osteochondrosis type lesions in the neighbouring joints of the evaluated growth plates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Icelandic horse appears to have similar radiographic closure times for most of the growth plates of its limbs as reported for large new breeds of horses developed during the past few centuries. It thus appears that different breeding goals and the intensity of breeding have not altered the length of the growth period in horses. Instead, it can be assumed that the pristine and relatively small Icelandic horse has a slower rate of growth. The appendicular skeleton of Icelandic horses has completed its bone growth in length at approximately 3 years of age, and therefore may be able to enter training at this time.</p

Frequencies of board meetings on various topics and corporate governance: evidence from China

This paper examines the relationship between number of topic-specific board meetings and quality of corporate governance. The quality of corporate governance is estimated by CEO turnover-performance and compensation-performance sensitivities. Information about topic-specific meetings is collected from the reports of independent directors of Chinese listed firms. We find that more frequent discussions of growth strategies related to the use of IPO proceeds, investment and acquisitions increase CEO compensation-performance sensitivity. By contrast, more discussions about the nomination of directors and top management are likely to reduce the sensitivities of both CEO turnover and compensation to performance. Our findings shed light on what makes boards efficient, and how board monitoring of assorted decisions modifies the relationship between CEO interests and firm performance

First Dating of a Recombination Event in Mammalian Tick-Borne Flaviviruses

The mammalian tick-borne flavivirus group (MTBFG) contains viruses associated with important human and animal diseases such as encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever. In contrast to mosquito-borne flaviviruses where recombination events are frequent, the evolutionary dynamic within the MTBFG was believed to be essentially clonal. This assumption was challenged with the recent report of several homologous recombinations within the Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). We performed a thorough analysis of publicly available genomes in this group and found no compelling evidence for the previously identified recombinations. However, our results show for the first time that demonstrable recombination (i.e., with large statistical support and strong phylogenetic evidences) has occurred in the MTBFG, more specifically within the Louping ill virus lineage. Putative parents, recombinant strains and breakpoints were further tested for statistical significance using phylogenetic methods. We investigated the time of divergence between the recombinant and parental strains in a Bayesian framework. The recombination was estimated to have occurred during a window of 282 to 76 years before the present. By unravelling the temporal setting of the event, we adduce hypotheses about the ecological conditions that could account for the observed recombination

Translating microarray data for diagnostic testing in childhood leukaemia

BACKGROUND: Recent findings from microarray studies have raised the prospect of a standardized diagnostic gene expression platform to enhance accurate diagnosis and risk stratification in paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). However, the robustness as well as the format for such a diagnostic test remains to be determined. As a step towards clinical application of these findings, we have systematically analyzed a published ALL microarray data set using Robust Multi-array Analysis (RMA) and Random Forest (RF). METHODS: We examined published microarray data from 104 ALL patients specimens, that represent six different subgroups defined by cytogenetic features and immunophenotypes. Using the decision-tree based supervised learning algorithm Random Forest (RF), we determined a small set of genes for optimal subgroup distinction and subsequently validated their predictive power in an independent patient cohort. RESULTS: We achieved very high overall ALL subgroup prediction accuracies of about 98%, and were able to verify the robustness of these genes in an independent panel of 68 specimens obtained from a different institution and processed in a different laboratory. Our study established that the selection of discriminating genes is strongly dependent on the analysis method. This may have profound implications for clinical use, particularly when the classifier is reduced to a small set of genes. We have demonstrated that as few as 26 genes yield accurate class prediction and importantly, almost 70% of these genes have not been previously identified as essential for class distinction of the six ALL subgroups. CONCLUSION: Our finding supports the feasibility of qRT-PCR technology for standardized diagnostic testing in paediatric ALL and should, in conjunction with conventional cytogenetics lead to a more accurate classification of the disease. In addition, we have demonstrated that microarray findings from one study can be confirmed in an independent study, using an entirely independent patient cohort and with microarray experiments being performed by a different research team

Functional Interactions between the erupted/tsg101 Growth Suppressor Gene and the DaPKC and rbf1 Genes in Drosophila Imaginal Disc Tumors

BACKGROUND: The Drosophila gene erupted (ept) encodes the fly homolog of human Tumor Susceptibility Gene-101 (TSG101), which functions as part of the conserved ESCRT-1 complex to facilitate the movement of cargoes through the endolysosomal pathway. Loss of ept or other genes that encode components of the endocytic machinery (e.g. synatxin7/avalanche, rab5, and vps25) produces disorganized overgrowth of imaginal disc tissue. Excess cell division is postulated to be a primary cause of these 'neoplastic' phenotypes, but the autonomous effect of these mutations on cell cycle control has not been examined. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show that disc cells lacking ept function display an altered cell cycle profile indicative of deregulated progression through the G1-to-S phase transition and express reduced levels of the tumor suppressor ortholog and G1/S inhibitor Rbf1. Genetic reductions of the Drosophila aPKC kinase (DaPKC), which has been shown to promote tumor growth in other fly tumor models, prevent both the ept neoplastic phenotype and the reduction in Rbf1 levels that otherwise occurs in clones of ept mutant cells; this effect is coincident with changes in localization of Notch and Crumbs, two proteins whose sorting is altered in ept mutant cells. The effect on Rbf1 can also be blocked by removal of the gamma-secretase component presenilin, suggesting that cleavage of a gamma-secretase target influences Rbf1 levels in ept mutant cells. Expression of exogenous rbf1 completely ablates ept mutant eye tissues but only mildly affects the development of discs composed of cells with wild type ept. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these data show that loss of ept alters nuclear cell cycle control in developing imaginal discs and identify the DaPKC, presenilin, and rbf1 genes as modifiers of molecular and cellular phenotypes that result from loss of ept